Bits and pieces of my life. I am a lifelong Christian. I have been married for over 41 years to Stan. No children. We have 1 Chihuahua, Christopher Robin, and 2 calico cats named Capt. Fishipants (a rare MALE calico) and Daphne Doolittle. We have 9 nieces/nephews and 10 grandnieces/nephews whom we love. My hobbies are genealogy, reading, digital scrapbooking, history, dogs, homemaking. This is a personal blog, not a business. I share what interests me I am not selling or making a profit.

Pages

..........Contact me at Mom25dogs@gmail.com.........

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Some easy, healthy, nutritional lunch ideas for your the lunchbox or a picnic..

Apple Wedges With Peanut Butter
Slice apples and place in plasti zip baggy with some water and lemon juice (the lemon juice will naturally preserve that apple and keep it from turning brown). Put a small container of peanut butter in with them. You can put some grapes, raisins or banana slices on the apple and peanut butter too.

Homemade Apple Sauce
Use a sweet apple like Gala, Fuji (cored, peeled and sliced)
Cinnamon
Sugar (or brown sugar or honey)
Water (or apple juice)
Remember there is moisture in the apples so don't overdo the water. Apples are sweet so watch the amount of sugar you use. Cook the apples until it's mushy and Voila! you have simple homemade applesauce.

Monte Cristo Sandwich
Dijon mustard
2 pieces bread, toasted (or soak the bread in egg and grill to make French toast)
thinly sliced ham
thinly sliced turkey
Swiss cheese
mayonnaise
butter, at room temperature
Spread toast thinly with butter, then thinly with mayonnaise and dijon mustard. Layer ham, turkey and cheese. When ready to serve, heat enough to melt the butter and eat. If you don't have access to microwave, don't make french toast and leave off the butter and eat sandwich cold.
Source: RealSimple.com

Pear and Avocado On Sour Dough Bread
1 fresh avocado
Lemon juice
salt
Bosc pear
Bread
Cut and scoop out ripe avocado, sprinkle lemon juice and salt to keep it preserved and from turning it brown. Put the avocado in a container. Add thin slices of pear in plastic zip baggy with some lemon juice and water to keep it preserved. When ready to eat, spread avocado on bread and layer pear slices.
source: Parenting.com

Chicken Salad Sandwich
Boil a boneless, skinless chicken breast until cooked. Let cool and dice. Add chopped fresh cilantro, salt, sweet pickle relish, Duke's mayonnaise, diced black walnuts. Place in small container. Use a good bread or toasted sliced bread. Place some avocado slices in plastic zip baggy with a little lemon juice, water and salt to preserve. When ready to eat, add chicken salad and avocado slices to bread.

Carrot Oven Fries
Carrots, peeled and cut into 4-inch x 1/4-inch sticks
Hidden Valley® The Original Ranch® Salad Dressing & Seasoning Mix (1 package to 5-6 large carrots)
Olive oil
Corn starch (1 tsp to 4-5 large carrots)
Preheat oven to 400F. In a large bowl, combine the carrots together with the olive oil, corn starch and seasoning mix. Using a sheet tray or quarter sheet pan, spray generously with cooking spray. Arrange the carrots in a single layer on rack and bake for 25 to 35 minutes or until crispy.

Monday, October 14, 2013

I just finished reading Robert Kolker's Lost Girls, An Unsolved American Mystery about the Oak Beach murders.

In December 2010, four sets of human remains – neatly shrouded in burlap sacks – were discovered along remote Gilgo Beach in Long Island. Further searches found the remains of 10 people between Manorville and Oak Beach, one a toddler and one an Asian male in women's clothes. The other eight were women. The book had no photos which would have been appreciated. But here are photos of the principal places and people for your help.

The old Oak Beach Inn

The search

Maureen Brainard-Barnes

Melissa Barthelemy

Shannan Gilbert

Megan Waterman

Amber Overstreet Costello

Jessica Taylor

Joseph Joe Brewer

His house

Dr. Charles Peter Hackett

His house

Gus Coletti

Michael Pak, the driver

Kimberly "Kim" Overstreet Costello

Lorraine Ela and her mother, Muriel Benner

Mari Gilbert

This could have been a very confusing story with all the different people and situations involved but Kolker did a good job in bringing some order to it. Using a chapter for each woman we got to know a little about their lives before the murders. Each tale so tragic.

These women got themselves into a terrible lifestyle of prostitution, drugs, lies and theft. But no one deserves to be treated like so much trash to be used, abused, murdered and thrown away. I hope they find whoever did this.

Of course, the mystery has not been solved and so there is no end to the story, no conclusion, no closure. And the police cannot reveal all they may know or the evidence they may have so the story is one sided. They cannot make comments on an open case. I understand that but it made the book more rumor than facts.

I could have done without the conflict in the families that he describes. Such tragedy can bring out the best and the worst. It's their business and didn't need to be made public. That made the book too long. Maybe he didn't have enough material without it to make a book?

Sunday, October 13, 2013

It's good for children to learn how to be organized at an early age. Instill in them how to organize their books, supplies, lockers, schedules and you will teach them a life skill that will carry them far! Here are some ideas for organized lockers.

Here are a few ideas I found on how to organize your school supplies for all those homework assignments.

Your children have put a lot of work into their studies, their artwork, their special projects. You can keep their work organized to pass down to them when they have homes of their own. Here are some ideas I found on how to organize and store their schoolwork. One word of advice, try to use acid free materials from paper to folders, page protectors to storage containers., from pens to adhesives. Do a Google search to find acid free supplies for storage such as boxes, binders, etc.